Who says we can't be friends?
by MissSadieKane
Summary: Just because he was in Slytherin and she was a Muggleborn didn't mean they couldn't be friends: that's what Regulus kept telling himself anyway. And Lily already had a friend in Slytheirn didn't she, so it couldn't be that hard? However, as they get older, things get more complicated. Can they still be friends on opposite sides of the war? 1972-1979.


_Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters in this._

_AN: I began writing this for Thanatos Angelos Girl, for her Regulus Black competition. Unfortunately, this ended up a little bit longer than I intended, so I submitted a different one. My actual entry for the competition was called 'Because Houses Don't Really Matter' and was about Regulus just after his sorting. This got left on my computer and I completely forgot about it until now._

…..

**Chapter One: The Train**

Sirius ran off as soon as he'd spotted James, leaving Regulus standing alone on the platform looking lost and confused. The younger boy felt a little rejected: it would have been nicer if Sirius had maybe said goodbye, stopped to introduce him to his friend, or helped him carry the luggage on to the train (for Sirius had left Regulus with the trolley that had both of their bags and both of the owl cages on it). Yes, that would have been infinitely better, but Sirius wasn't usually one to stop and think, and James _was _his best friend after all. Sirius had probably also thought that Regulus would be fine on his own, and Regulus did know other people that would be going to Hogwarts too.

Instead of moping about it, Regulus started to make his way through the crowds of people towards the train. It was quite difficult since the trolley was heavy and he had to manoeuvre it through the groups of students that were all milling about and not going in any purposeful direction. Other students were hugging their parents and crying as they said goodbye for the last time. Regulus knew his own mother would have been ashamed of him if he'd "displayed such weakness in public viewing".

Regulus stopped next to the open door of one of the carriages. Sirius was nowhere in sight. He didn't want Sirius's things to be left on the station so he picked up both his and Sirius's owl cages and lifted them both onto the train. It was fairly easy as Sirius's owl was normal in size, and his own was the smallest ball of fluff that had been in the shop. Next he tried lifting Sirius's trunk. It was huge and much heavier than it looked because Sirius had crammed so much pointless junk into it (though Sirius had argued that all of it was necessary). Regulus dragged it the remaining two feet to the door and then stepped up onto the train and tried to lift it up after himself.

It was too heavy: Regulus had hardly lifted it a half a foot off the ground before he dropped it, stumbled backwards, tripped over one of the owl cages, and landed in a heap on the carriage floor. He sighed and stood up, ignoring the pain in his leg from where he's scraped it on the wire - Blacks didn't give up that easily. However, when he walked back to get the case he realised that it wasn't on the platform; it had fallen down the gap. Sirius was going to be furious with him.

He stared dumbly at the trunk, wishing desperately that he wasn't a first year and that he knew some useful magic. He attempted to lie on the floor and dangle his arms out the door but it was useless - Regulus's arms simply weren't two metres long.

"Do you need any help?" someone asked. Regulus turned around to see a girl around Sirius's age with long, red hair tied in two plaits. She looked friendly so he nodded. With a swish and a flick and a "Wingardium Leviosa" both of the trunks were safely on the train and Regulus felt incredibly stupid for making such a fool of himself on his first day.

"Thank you," he said, holding out a hand for her to shake. "I'm Regulus, and what's your name?"

"Lily," she said, smiling down at him. "Do you want to find a compartment?"

"Okay," said Regulus. He picked up his own owl cage and trunk and followed her along down the corridor to the nearest empty compartment.

"How come you've got so much stuff with you?" asked Lily, who was carrying Sirius's things. Regulus had no idea where hers were.

"Some of it's my brother's," he replied. "He ran off to talk to some friends and didn't realise he'd forgotten all this lot."

"Isn't that a bit mean of him to leave you? That case was enormous!"

"No. He knows I've got friends to help me. I just haven't seen any of them yet."

"Yeah, but I still think he shouldn't have left you – not on your first day," said Lily. Regulus couldn't help agreeing with her to some extent.

"I guess not, but that's just what he's like I guess. What year are you in?" he asked, trying to steer the conversation away from how mean Sirius was or wasn't. He didn't want Lily to think he was a stupid little first year that couldn't cope by himself (even if he actually was), and he didn't want her pitying him because Sirius would rather be with James than him.

"Third year, Gryffindor," she said.

"Wow, that's exactly the same as my brother! He's a Gryffindor third year too. Are you two friends? I hope so because then we can all go in a compartment together."

"I might do. Who's your brother?"

"Sirius Black."

Regulus felt dismayed as Lily's facial expression changed to one of disgust. It was evident that Lily did not like Sirius. Regulus didn't really understand why: in his opinion Sirius was one of the best people in the world, even when he had his stupid head on.

Luckily Regulus was saved from further awkward conversation by the abrupt opening of the compartment door.

"Reg, I've been looking everywhere for you. Why didn't you wait for me?" It was Evan Rosier. He and Regulus had practically been brought up together and were almost as close as Regulus and Sirius were. Part of the reason for this was because their Mothers had been in the same year at Hogwarts, and partly because they shared cousins with one another. They were very close in age but because Regulus's birthday was in autumn and Evan's birthday was in the summer, they were in different school years.

"Sirius ran off without me, and I thought everyone else would already be on the train. Do you want to sit down? This is Lily. She's in Sirius's year."

"I know that's Lily, and sorry but I don't think it's appropriate for me to sit here," said Evan.

"Why not?" asked Regulus.

"What he's trying to say," said Lily, glaring darkly at Evan, "is that I'm muggle born and he's a Slytherin." Regulus thought her attitude towards his friend was even worse than when he had mentioned Sirius.

"Sort of, but-" began Evan.

"What? But you and Sirius both said you didn't care about blood status. Don't tell me your breaking that promise just because you've fallen out with Sirius!" Regulus burst out.

"No, it's just that… can we talk about this outside?"

Regulus huffed, but allowed Evan to pull him outside into the corridor. "So what is it you want to say that you couldn't say in front of Lily?" he asked.

"Nothing much. I don't have much of a problem with muggles but I think it would be better not to talk to them too much. That mightn't have been me that walked in just then – what would you have done if it had been Macnair or Mulciber or someone?

"Are you saying I should be scared of them? " asked Regulus.

"No." Regulus could easily tell that he meant yes. He knew his friend was terrified of the older Slytherins and also of his own father. According to Evan, Mulciber was even scarier than Rodolphus was, and Regulus knew exactly how ruthless Rodolphus could be. He'd been on the wrong end of the Lestrange boy's wand enough times to know that.

"Why does Lily hate you so much anyway? It's not like you've done anything to her," asked Regulus.

"No I haven't but I haven't done anything nice to her either. She's the one who yelled at me over the incident with Mary."

"That wasn't your fault," said Regulus. He knew what incident his friend had been referring to. Last year Evan had decided to make friends with a muggle born girl in his year called Mary MacDonald. The friendship had gone pretty well until one day Mulciber had walked in on the two of them studying. Since Mulciber wasn't the nicest person in the world he'd thought it would be a good idea to punish Mary for corrupting a fellow Slytherin by practising cutting curses on her. As far as Regulus knew, Evan hadn't talked to Mary since.

"No but I should have done something about it. Not just stand there and watch as all that blood…" Evan shuddered at the memory and Regulus didn't blame him. From what he'd heard from both Evan and Sirius (on separate occasions), what Mulciber had done to Mary MacDonald was just plain disgusting. "I just don't think you should go around talking to muggleborns in public," he finished.

"So is it okay if I talk to them in private, like a secret or something?" asked Regulus. He didn't really need to ask for his friend's approval since he was going to do it anyway. Regulus knew better than to think that an empty Transfiguration classroom was a secret enough location.

"I guess so."

…..

Regulus was thankful when he finally arrived at the castle. Though the carriage journey had been pleasant enough – they'd played exploding snap for most of it – he really hadn't enjoyed the trip between the station and the castle. He had been forced to travel across the Black Lake in a boat with three people that he didn't know. Regulus did not like boats, nor water, but most of all did not having to share such a small space with the three idiots that he had been grouped with.

One of them was a boy named Crouch who kept rocking the boat leaving Regulus not only feeling sick but also terrified that he would fall out. Of course, Regulus would probably not have minded so much if the boy hadn't had such a smug smile (due to the fear he was causing) on his face, or if the girl next to him hadn't actually thrown up all over him. As it was Regulus was now covered in the disgusting substance and was feeling increasingly nauseous. The final addition to the boat was another boy who didn't seem to understand that no one was listening to his seemingly endless account of how to battle dragons.

When they arrived at the castle they were greeted by tall, thin woman who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall. Despite having her lips set in a firm line, she actually looked like quite a kind person to Regulus. This feeling was accentuated by her waving her wand and casting a 'Scurgify' charm at him to clean his robes, making him feel infinitely better about walking into the Great Hall where Sirius was. He hadn't been looking forward to Sirius laughing at his current predicament.

Regulus followed the other first years through the Great Hall where they stopped at the front of the hall. In front of the teachers' table was a very old, worn-looking hat, which, to Regulus's utmost surprise, suddenly burst into song. It wasn't a particularly nice song: it talked of upcoming war and how it would be in everyone's best interests to end all house rivalry. As far as Regulus was concerned, however, this was complete nonsense. The Slytherins would always hate the Gryffindors and the Gryffindors would always hate them right back – Sirius and Bellatrix had both said so, each speaking on the behalf of their own houses. A song sung by a battered hat wasn't going to change that.

He was glad when it finally shut up. He watched as the other students were called up one by one. A blond boy called Abbot was sorted first – he went into Hufflepuff almost as soon as the sorting hat touched his head.

"Black, Regulus." He walked shyly up to the hat, aware of the other students staring at him. He had already spotted Sirius sitting between James Potter and that boy called Lupin that had visited during the summer holidays. Sirius looked perfectly happy and at ease in Gryffindor – perhaps it wasn't so bad after all.

The hat came down over his eyes obscuring his view of Sirius completely. He almost jumped off the chair when he heard a voice in his ear:

"Hmm, you have a lot of ambition and a thirst for knowledge. You are also loyal to your friends-"

"Don't you dare put me in_ Hufflepuff_!" whispered Regulus.

"I didn't say I would – I was just considering it as an option. I don't know what you lot think is so bad about it – your friend practically screamed at me not to and insisted that I put him in Slytherin. It was a shame: he would have done so much better there. Oh well."

"I don't know what you're talking about. None of my friends belong in Hufflepuff. Anyway, aren't you supposed to be sorting me?"

"Oh yes. Now where to put you… Not Gryffindor – you're brave but you won't have to be if I put you there. Hufflepuff is a definite no. Ravenclaw… I think you'd do well there… okay not Ravenclaw then," the hat rambled. "Better be… SLYTHERIN!"

There was a huge cheer from Slytherin table but nowhere else. Regulus felt dismayed when he was the look of disappointment on his brother's face. He ran over to Slytherin table and Evan made a space for him since there were no other first years in Slytherin yet. Regulus couldn't understand why his best friend looked almost as disappointed with him as Sirius did.

…..

_AN: So there you have it. My first chapter of what hopefully will be a decent length story but not too long. I won't be doing what I usually do, which is writing several chapters that only cover one day at Hogwarts, because that would take far too long. I'm still writing my other stories as well._

_Please tell me what you think so far. It'll help me write better and update faster. Please review._


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